Commonly in dealing with metal fabrication where a number of preformed structural elements of various shapes and sizes are used, such as in manufacturing plants and machine shops, groups of similar elements are required to be available for use. It has become a common practice to store such groups of similar elements on racks or shelving of various sorts usually with the groups of segregated from each other. To provide such segregation for convenience of use while minimizing the amount of floor space occupied, such racks normally have provided a plurality of vertically spaced, usually elongate horizontal supports which often have been subdivided into bins to accomplish their purposes. Though such racks have long been known and have been improved through a lengthy developmental period extending to the present time until they now are quite sophisticated, various problems still remain with their use which the instant storage device solves.
Most metal structural elements are merchandised in units of substantial length, ranging up to twenty to thirty feet, for convenience of use so that they may be cut to shorter desired lengths by ultimate users to avoid material waste. Such elements by reason of the density of the metal forming them and their configuration have substantial weight which, individually, and especially in amassed groups, makes the elements difficult to handle either manually or mechanically. This handling difficulty is only exacerbated by the simple unitary structure of many presently used storage racks that do not allow convenient access to all areas of the rack.
Machining operations with metal structural elements usually are accomplished with machines having material supporting tables that commonly are approximately the same height above a surface supporting them, such as a floor, usually between approximately thirty to forty inches. If structural elements are of a weight and configuration that allow them to be manipulated by one or relatively few workmen, it also is most convenient and safe to carry out such manual manipulation at an elevation of approximately thirty to forty inches above a surface supporting the workman to avoid undue physiological stresses and strains that may develop if the material has to be lifted from below or lowered from above such elevation.
The instant storage device deals with these problems by providing a support frame with one or more vertical columns that carry a rack structure for hydraulically powered vertical motion so that any of a plurality of vertically spaced support elements of the rack may be selectively moved to a vertical position at a desired level. The rack and other machinery may be associated in proximity so that elongate structural elements in the rack may be moved to the elevation of a machine tool work surface and the structural elements then further moved, especially in an elongate fashion, from the rack onto an adjacent machine table for machining operations. The positioning of structural elements at a proper height for manipulation without much, if any, required vertical motion substantially lessens the potential for injury to workmen not only from stress and strain, but also from accidental falling or moving of structural elements on or from a rack.
The adjustable vertical positioning of horizontally orientated support elements has an additional benefit of allowing material to be moved directly to or from the rack and adjacent transport devices such as conveyors, chutes, carts or the like without lifting motions by workmen for either loading or unloading the rack.
In dealing with metal structural elements individually or in groups, it is often necessary by reason of the weight and size of the elements to manipulate them with mechanical aid, such as by use of a forklift or overhead crane. This mechanical manipulation is sometimes prohibited and other times made difficult by reason of rack structures that have plural, vertically spaced, horizontal supports that are immovable relative to each other. Physical access for loading or unloading support elements may be prevented either from vertically above a storage rack or horizontally adjacent to it by an overlying arrangement of shelves or lack of vertical space between them. The instant rack addresses this problem by providing compound horizontal supports that have a base member upon which a support member is carried for horizontal motion, so that the support member may be moved laterally away from a vertical stack of unextended overlying support members to be freely accessed from either a horizontal or vertical direction. Such access also provides similar benefits for manual manipulation of structural elements carried on a particular horizontal support and especially allows the structural elements to be removed or replaced on the support without any, or at least minimal, vertical motion of the structural element. The better access also allows easier and more secure manual grasping of the elements while allowing a view of the entire work area to substantially lessen the possibility of accidents caused by improper handling of the structural elements or accidental motion of associated elements other than one or more being moved.
The instant support device, in providing its functions, does not negate use of the amenities known in prior storage racks. My support device provides a freestanding unitary structure that may be supported on an underlying supportative surface such as a floor and requires no attachment to structural elements such as walls or the its supporting surface. The rack allows the various horizontal supports and support configurations that have heretofore come to be used in simple unitary storage racks such as medial cantilevering of supports to allow access from both ends and both sides, providing supports that may be angled to the horizontal, providing plural vertically spaced supports that have sequentially less width in an upward direction and the like. My support device also may be supported in a hole defined below a floor or other surface supporting machinery to provide more vertically spaced supports than could be provided by a support supported at the same level as machinery.
My invention resides not in any one of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of its structures that necessarily give rise to the functions flowing therefrom as specified and claimed.